Spending on education during the 1988-89 school year will rise by 6.2 percent to reach a record total of $328 billion, the U.S. Education Department predicts in its annual back-to-school forecast.
Outlays for elementary and secondary education, both public and private, will account for $196 billion, the department projects, while spending on postsecondary education will total $132 billion.
Adjusted for inflation, this year’s total expenditure for precollegiate education amounts to a 26 percent increase over the 1980-81 figure of $183 billion, the department calculates.
It also expects that:
Total elementary and secondary enrollment will reach 46 million, an increase of about 80,000 over last year.
Elementary enrollment will be 1.4 percent above last year’s level, while secondary enrollment will be down 2.8 percent.
Average spending for each student in public elementary and secondary schools will be $4,810.
2.7 million people will be employed as teachers in elementary and secondary schools.
The average salary of public elementary and secondary teachers will be $29,573.
State laws requiring that parents be notified before their daughters under 18 can obtain abortions were the subject of conflicting August rulings by two federal appellate courts.
By a 7-to-3 vote, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld a Minnesota law requiring minors to notify both of their parents or to obtain special approval from a state judge before having an abor6tion. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit struck down an Ohio statute requiring doctors to notify parents before performing abortions on unmarried minors.
The conflict between the the circuit courts increases the chances that the U.S. Supreme Court will agree to review the issue. The Court divided 4 to 4 in December in a case involving a somewhat similar law in Illinois.
Agencies serving mentally disturbed youths will be eligible for a total of $20.4 million over the next five years, under a new grant program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a health-care philanthropy.
Under the Mental Health Services Program for Youth, the foundation will fund state-community partnerships that help young people with such illnesses as autism, hyperactivity, and depression.
The program will include 12 one-year grants of up to $100,000 each, and eight four-year grants of up to $2.4 million each.
Agencies must indicate their interest in the program by Oct. 3, 1988. The application deadline is Feb. 2, 1989.
For further information on the grant program, contact Mary Jane England, Vice President, Medical Services, Prudential Insurance Company, 56 North Livingston Ave., Roseland, N.J. 07068; (201) 716-6882.
